Arcane Stylus (Repost from UnCon) [Archive] - Wizards Community

Arcane Stylus (Repost from UnCon) [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Edymnion
11-28-04, 03:53 PM Reposted from my UnCon archive for Heron_Marked_Blade:

Arcane Stylus
The pen is mightier than the sword, but over time, ink will fade as surely as the sword will rust.

This simple item is a slender wooden rod with metal bandings, approximately 8 inches long. Often used in wizarding circles for signing binding contracts, this stylus creates a visible Arcane Mark instead of a normal line of ink, making forgery next to impossible. Among other things, this also means there is no limit on how much you may write. Anything from your own personal rune to the entire Encyclopedia Magicka can be written in a permanent magical script, guarenteed to last as long as what it was written on does, or until someone casts Erase, whichever comes first :)

Faint Transmutation; CL 1, Craft Wonderous Item, Arcane Mark; Price: 900 gp; Weight: .5 pounds
Heron_Marked_Blade
11-28-04, 04:04 PM I have just "borrowed" this item for my Wizard. And no, you won't get it back. ;)

Thanks!
Seeker95
11-28-04, 04:52 PM Edymnion, you are one helluva good designer.
I envy anyone who gets to play in your campaigns. :smirk:
Edymnion
11-28-04, 05:06 PM Hey, the secret is to make something utilitarian. Anybody can make flashy attack items, or defense items, but its the little utilitarian things you quickly find that you can't live without.

I swear though, WotC, why was I not included in Complete Arcane?
Come on, we all know that the D&D world needs official writeups for Edymnion's Broach of Prestidigitation and Edymnion's Arcane Stylus!

:P
Zyphus
11-28-04, 06:52 PM Why would forgery be "next to impossible"? Especially if these things get sold or stolen?

Would it be a "use" item or spell completion item?

I run off the SRD and do not have a 3.5 PH if Arcane Mark was changed.
Tehril
11-28-04, 07:48 PM So let me get this straight... does the Arcane Sytlus craft millions of really tiny arcane marks, all arranged in a pattern to create the appearence of a staight line?

Much like a bank note might use tiny symbols/letters/numbers to create and image on a piece of paper?

So, you'd need either an magnifying glass to see the tiny symbols... or cast Detect Magic and see every word light up like a christmas tree???

Is that how it works?

:D
Edymnion
11-28-04, 09:42 PM So let me get this straight... does the Arcane Sytlus craft millions of really tiny arcane marks, all arranged in a pattern to create the appearence of a staight line?Arcane Mark says you can make up to 6 characters with it. The stylus is unlimited use. Once you use up those 6 characters, it immediantly re-activates the spell, and you get another 6. It normally only lets you make an image so big. Once you go outside that range, it just uses another Arcane Mark to increase the size of the apparent whole.Why would forgery be "next to impossible"? Especially if these things get sold or stolen?Its 900 gold. Its not like every peasant out there is going to be able to get his hands on this thing. Its even out of the price range for second level characters.

Think of it this way. Every single anti-forgery technique you can do with ink can be done with the Arcane Stylus. And on top of that, it isn't ink, so that right there immediantly sets it apart. Plus it can't be erased without erasing the entire thing, so you can't erase and modify individual sections like you could with ink.

Nothing is 100% forgery proof. But even if you hade a +100 to Forgery checks, you still couldn't forge something signed with one of these unless you actually had one, because there's simply no way you could reproduce a magical glowing color shifting line with mundane products.
SphericalTime
11-28-04, 11:29 PM I second Seeker.
[GSV] Kirstar
11-29-04, 04:46 AM thats a nice item m8e.

added to my list.

What people need to remember is that if it was easy to forge things like money economies would collapse.

So bank notes crafted with arcane marks or threads of magic....

or the coins with arcane marks built in, like those weird canadian golden dollars with the hologram on the side.

You could even specify that each pen is unique, like each casters magic is unique. And under the skilled examination of detect magic or arcane sight the differences in magic would be obvious.
Edymnion
11-29-04, 03:10 PM Kirstar']or the coins with arcane marks built in, like those weird canadian golden dollars with the hologram on the side.I like that idea actually. Consider it stolen ;)
You could even specify that each pen is unique, like each casters magic is unique. And under the skilled examination of detect magic or arcane sight the differences in magic would be obvious.A good suggestion. If each stylus had it's own "fingerprint", what was written could theoretically be traced back to the pen that wrote it. And you would, of course, become familiar with the fingerprint of "famous" styluses, like those used for coins, or those that are used by official governments.

Sort of like the special pens you can buy today in the real world. You send them a sample of your DNA, then they send you pens. The ink in the pens contains your DNA, so its quite easy to see if you actually wrote something or not by seeing if your DNA is in the ink on the paper (even though the pens could be stolen, etc).
smrtgmp
11-29-04, 05:01 PM A good suggestion. If each stylus had it's own "fingerprint", what was written could theoretically be traced back to the pen that wrote it. And you would, of course, become familiar with the fingerprint of "famous" styluses, like those used for coins, or those that are used by official governments.It would be somewhat impractical to only have one stylus used in the creation of money, as it would take forever to stamp each coin one at a time. Perhaps styluses created for large scale use such as the printing of money could be created in sets. To be honest, I'm suprised such a simple, practical item wasnt included in the Eberron Campaign Setting. It would be perfect for use in a House Sivis(sp?) message station. Nifty little item, BTW.

Regarding the Brooch of Prestidigitation, I am somewhat suprised that you (or anyone for that matter) would claim to be the originator of such an item. Items of Prestidigitation (or Cantrip, for those of you old enough to remember the good old days) have seen common use for as long as I have been playing this game. In fact, the very first magic-user I ever played (~18 years ago) recieved a Gem of Wondrous Delight (identical in function to your brooch) as a gift from his master for completing his apprenticeship.

Such items are infinitesimally useful and exceedingly practical, which is precisely why they have seen such heavy use over the years. Nearly everyone I've ever played with has encountered such an item in at least one of the games they have played in, which leads me to believe that it has been independantly "created" by countless gamers over the last 30 years. Why it hasnt made it into a core rule book is beyond me.
[GSV] Kirstar
11-30-04, 06:15 AM Well using the idea that magic can be encoded or threaded into printing or physical coins for ID purposes......

some things come to mind.

1. Coin stamping dies, stamp the coin out, mills the edges and places an arcane-mark on the coin. As long as the coin remains unmilled the arcane-mark will stay active, make the actual money value of the coin more than the value of the material its made from. dont try using an illusion to change the coin type, then a magic aura to hide the illusion because that will hide the arcane-marks magic too......

2. paper money presses. instead of a water mark use an arcane-mark. The dies would be like the ones they use now VERY well guarded.

3. Signet rings that leaves an arcane-mark when sealed, break the seal destroy the mark

4. Sealing wax used with the signet ring. break the seal, not only destroy the arcane-mark but the document is destroyed too.

5. magic ink. anything written with this ink will disapear if you break the seal (see above) and wont show up in dead magic or anti magic areas. stops people opening the documents and reading them in anti magic areas

well here was my version of the pen...
Journey Scribe
This writing tool was originally developed for use with Journey Books. Each Scribe is about 6" long and 1/2" thick. One end is pointed the other rounded. The pointed end will will write like a pen. Colours may be selected by the writer by willing the pen to change colourand stating aloud the required colour. The rounded end will eraze what the Scribe has written.
The scribe may write on any surface that a marker pen can write to, in other words dont try to write on clouds or sand etc. The Scribe actually produces ink, the longevity of which is dependant on the surface.
CL 1st; Craft Wondrous Item, Arcane Mark; Price 1,000 gp;
Tesserax
11-30-04, 11:28 AM Kirstar']
or the coins with arcane marks built in, like those weird canadian golden dollars with the hologram on the side.

Sorry to disappoint you Kirstar, but when I read your message, I pulled out one of those so called weird Canadian golden dollars, and I could not see a hologram on the side, so unless it is not visible to the naked eye (which kind of defeats the purpose) it's not there. :(
Edymnion
11-30-04, 04:12 PM Sorry to disappoint you Kirstar, but when I read your message, I pulled out one of those so called weird Canadian golden dollars, and I could not see a hologram on the side, so unless it is not visible to the naked eye (which kind of defeats the purpose) it's not there. :(I know the one he's talking about, I've seen one myself. The back is covered in this huge holographic foil maple leaf. It is REALLY freaky to see that kind of thing on the back of a coin.

As for it not being practical to put them on a coin, remember, D&D is not modern day. There were no mass production lines for the minting of coins. It was still essentially "Blob gold into coin. Hand press image into coin. Lather, rinse, repeat".

It would be exceedingly easy for someone to just tape each coin as it was finished. Its not like they would be making hundreds or thousands of coins at a time here.
smrtgmp
11-30-04, 05:02 PM There were no mass production lines for the minting of coins. It was still essentially "Blob gold into coin. Hand press image into coin. Lather, rinse, repeat".How much coinage do you think a kindom of any size must create inorder for its trade industry to flourish? A production rate of 1 coin at a time would never fulfil such needs.

It would be exceedingly easy for someone to just tape each coin as it was finished. Its not like they would be making hundreds or thousands of coins at a time here.Actually, they probably would. In all likelyhood the molten metal would be poured into a series or molds that were more or less identical. Otherwise it would take forever to create any reasonable amount of coins. I'm not saying they would be mass produced at the same rate as modern mints, but it would certainly be more than one at a time. That being the case, I think for the purpose of aplying an arcane mark to coins, it would be more practical if the molds themselves administered it.
[GSV] Kirstar
11-30-04, 07:26 PM the way to make coins is create a sheet of the material, then cut blanks
then stanp the coin with a die. the die also adds the ripple bits on the side to prevent shaving of the coing for gold / silver dust

The canadian coin im talking about stamps twice in very precise ways thus creating the hologram.

when you get down to it, how hard would it be for a kingdoms mint to create a magic item that creates coins from base metals. it may be expensice to start but it elimates counter fitting instantly. you could even end up with one kingdoms central bank making most of a regions money, like the bank of england does
ajmastrean
12-05-04, 04:17 PM How does this affect scrolls? Can you write a scroll with this? is it permanent, as in not destroyed when read?
Seeker95
12-05-04, 04:21 PM How does this affect scrolls? [...] as in not destroyed when read?Whether the ink disappears or not, the magic infused within the scroll is released when the spell is cast.
In my campaign, the scroll itself powders upon casting, much like the vampires staked on Buffy.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Edymnion 11-28-04, 03:53 PM	Reposted from my UnCon archive for Heron_Marked_Blade: Arcane Stylus The pen is mightier than the sword, but over time, ink will fade as surely as the sword will rust. This simple item is a slender wooden rod with metal bandings, approximately 8 inches long. Often used in wizarding circles for signing binding contracts, this stylus creates a visible Arcane Mark instead of a normal line of ink, making forgery next to impossible. Among other things, this also means there is no limit on how much you may write. Anything from your own personal rune to the entire Encyclopedia Magicka can be written in a permanent magical script, guarenteed to last as long as what it was written on does, or until someone casts Erase, whichever comes first :) Faint Transmutation; CL 1, Craft Wonderous Item, Arcane Mark; Price: 900 gp; Weight: .5 pounds
Heron_Marked_Blade 11-28-04, 04:04 PM	I have just "borrowed" this item for my Wizard. And no, you won't get it back. ;) Thanks!
Seeker95 11-28-04, 04:52 PM	Edymnion, you are one helluva good designer. I envy anyone who gets to play in your campaigns. :smirk:
Edymnion 11-28-04, 05:06 PM	Hey, the secret is to make something utilitarian. Anybody can make flashy attack items, or defense items, but its the little utilitarian things you quickly find that you can't live without. I swear though, WotC, why was I not included in Complete Arcane? Come on, we all know that the D&D world needs official writeups for Edymnion's Broach of Prestidigitation and Edymnion's Arcane Stylus! :P
Zyphus 11-28-04, 06:52 PM	Why would forgery be "next to impossible"? Especially if these things get sold or stolen? Would it be a "use" item or spell completion item? I run off the SRD and do not have a 3.5 PH if Arcane Mark was changed.
Tehril 11-28-04, 07:48 PM	So let me get this straight... does the Arcane Sytlus craft millions of really tiny arcane marks, all arranged in a pattern to create the appearence of a staight line? Much like a bank note might use tiny symbols/letters/numbers to create and image on a piece of paper? So, you'd need either an magnifying glass to see the tiny symbols... or cast Detect Magic and see every word light up like a christmas tree??? Is that how it works? :D
Edymnion 11-28-04, 09:42 PM	So let me get this straight... does the Arcane Sytlus craft millions of really tiny arcane marks, all arranged in a pattern to create the appearence of a staight line?Arcane Mark says you can make up to 6 characters with it. The stylus is unlimited use. Once you use up those 6 characters, it immediantly re-activates the spell, and you get another 6. It normally only lets you make an image so big. Once you go outside that range, it just uses another Arcane Mark to increase the size of the apparent whole.Why would forgery be "next to impossible"? Especially if these things get sold or stolen?Its 900 gold. Its not like every peasant out there is going to be able to get his hands on this thing. Its even out of the price range for second level characters. Think of it this way. Every single anti-forgery technique you can do with ink can be done with the Arcane Stylus. And on top of that, it isn't ink, so that right there immediantly sets it apart. Plus it can't be erased without erasing the entire thing, so you can't erase and modify individual sections like you could with ink. Nothing is 100% forgery proof. But even if you hade a +100 to Forgery checks, you still couldn't forge something signed with one of these unless you actually had one, because there's simply no way you could reproduce a magical glowing color shifting line with mundane products.
SphericalTime 11-28-04, 11:29 PM	I second Seeker.
[GSV] Kirstar 11-29-04, 04:46 AM	thats a nice item m8e. added to my list. What people need to remember is that if it was easy to forge things like money economies would collapse. So bank notes crafted with arcane marks or threads of magic.... or the coins with arcane marks built in, like those weird canadian golden dollars with the hologram on the side. You could even specify that each pen is unique, like each casters magic is unique. And under the skilled examination of detect magic or arcane sight the differences in magic would be obvious.
Edymnion 11-29-04, 03:10 PM	Kirstar']or the coins with arcane marks built in, like those weird canadian golden dollars with the hologram on the side.I like that idea actually. Consider it stolen ;) You could even specify that each pen is unique, like each casters magic is unique. And under the skilled examination of detect magic or arcane sight the differences in magic would be obvious.A good suggestion. If each stylus had it's own "fingerprint", what was written could theoretically be traced back to the pen that wrote it. And you would, of course, become familiar with the fingerprint of "famous" styluses, like those used for coins, or those that are used by official governments. Sort of like the special pens you can buy today in the real world. You send them a sample of your DNA, then they send you pens. The ink in the pens contains your DNA, so its quite easy to see if you actually wrote something or not by seeing if your DNA is in the ink on the paper (even though the pens could be stolen, etc).
smrtgmp 11-29-04, 05:01 PM	A good suggestion. If each stylus had it's own "fingerprint", what was written could theoretically be traced back to the pen that wrote it. And you would, of course, become familiar with the fingerprint of "famous" styluses, like those used for coins, or those that are used by official governments.It would be somewhat impractical to only have one stylus used in the creation of money, as it would take forever to stamp each coin one at a time. Perhaps styluses created for large scale use such as the printing of money could be created in sets. To be honest, I'm suprised such a simple, practical item wasnt included in the Eberron Campaign Setting. It would be perfect for use in a House Sivis(sp?) message station. Nifty little item, BTW. Regarding the Brooch of Prestidigitation, I am somewhat suprised that you (or anyone for that matter) would claim to be the originator of such an item. Items of Prestidigitation (or Cantrip, for those of you old enough to remember the good old days) have seen common use for as long as I have been playing this game. In fact, the very first magic-user I ever played (~18 years ago) recieved a Gem of Wondrous Delight (identical in function to your brooch) as a gift from his master for completing his apprenticeship. Such items are infinitesimally useful and exceedingly practical, which is precisely why they have seen such heavy use over the years. Nearly everyone I've ever played with has encountered such an item in at least one of the games they have played in, which leads me to believe that it has been independantly "created" by countless gamers over the last 30 years. Why it hasnt made it into a core rule book is beyond me.
[GSV] Kirstar 11-30-04, 06:15 AM	Well using the idea that magic can be encoded or threaded into printing or physical coins for ID purposes...... some things come to mind. 1. Coin stamping dies, stamp the coin out, mills the edges and places an arcane-mark on the coin. As long as the coin remains unmilled the arcane-mark will stay active, make the actual money value of the coin more than the value of the material its made from. dont try using an illusion to change the coin type, then a magic aura to hide the illusion because that will hide the arcane-marks magic too...... 2. paper money presses. instead of a water mark use an arcane-mark. The dies would be like the ones they use now VERY well guarded. 3. Signet rings that leaves an arcane-mark when sealed, break the seal destroy the mark 4. Sealing wax used with the signet ring. break the seal, not only destroy the arcane-mark but the document is destroyed too. 5. magic ink. anything written with this ink will disapear if you break the seal (see above) and wont show up in dead magic or anti magic areas. stops people opening the documents and reading them in anti magic areas well here was my version of the pen... Journey Scribe This writing tool was originally developed for use with Journey Books. Each Scribe is about 6" long and 1/2" thick. One end is pointed the other rounded. The pointed end will will write like a pen. Colours may be selected by the writer by willing the pen to change colourand stating aloud the required colour. The rounded end will eraze what the Scribe has written. The scribe may write on any surface that a marker pen can write to, in other words dont try to write on clouds or sand etc. The Scribe actually produces ink, the longevity of which is dependant on the surface. CL 1st; Craft Wondrous Item, Arcane Mark; Price 1,000 gp;
Tesserax 11-30-04, 11:28 AM	Kirstar'] or the coins with arcane marks built in, like those weird canadian golden dollars with the hologram on the side. Sorry to disappoint you Kirstar, but when I read your message, I pulled out one of those so called weird Canadian golden dollars, and I could not see a hologram on the side, so unless it is not visible to the naked eye (which kind of defeats the purpose) it's not there. :(
Edymnion 11-30-04, 04:12 PM	Sorry to disappoint you Kirstar, but when I read your message, I pulled out one of those so called weird Canadian golden dollars, and I could not see a hologram on the side, so unless it is not visible to the naked eye (which kind of defeats the purpose) it's not there. :(I know the one he's talking about, I've seen one myself. The back is covered in this huge holographic foil maple leaf. It is REALLY freaky to see that kind of thing on the back of a coin. As for it not being practical to put them on a coin, remember, D&D is not modern day. There were no mass production lines for the minting of coins. It was still essentially "Blob gold into coin. Hand press image into coin. Lather, rinse, repeat". It would be exceedingly easy for someone to just tape each coin as it was finished. Its not like they would be making hundreds or thousands of coins at a time here.
smrtgmp 11-30-04, 05:02 PM	There were no mass production lines for the minting of coins. It was still essentially "Blob gold into coin. Hand press image into coin. Lather, rinse, repeat".How much coinage do you think a kindom of any size must create inorder for its trade industry to flourish? A production rate of 1 coin at a time would never fulfil such needs. It would be exceedingly easy for someone to just tape each coin as it was finished. Its not like they would be making hundreds or thousands of coins at a time here.Actually, they probably would. In all likelyhood the molten metal would be poured into a series or molds that were more or less identical. Otherwise it would take forever to create any reasonable amount of coins. I'm not saying they would be mass produced at the same rate as modern mints, but it would certainly be more than one at a time. That being the case, I think for the purpose of aplying an arcane mark to coins, it would be more practical if the molds themselves administered it.
[GSV] Kirstar 11-30-04, 07:26 PM	the way to make coins is create a sheet of the material, then cut blanks then stanp the coin with a die. the die also adds the ripple bits on the side to prevent shaving of the coing for gold / silver dust The canadian coin im talking about stamps twice in very precise ways thus creating the hologram. when you get down to it, how hard would it be for a kingdoms mint to create a magic item that creates coins from base metals. it may be expensice to start but it elimates counter fitting instantly. you could even end up with one kingdoms central bank making most of a regions money, like the bank of england does
ajmastrean 12-05-04, 04:17 PM	How does this affect scrolls? Can you write a scroll with this? is it permanent, as in not destroyed when read?
Seeker95 12-05-04, 04:21 PM	How does this affect scrolls? [...] as in not destroyed when read?Whether the ink disappears or not, the magic infused within the scroll is released when the spell is cast. In my campaign, the scroll itself powders upon casting, much like the vampires staked on Buffy.